Samurai Chess: Mastering the Martial Art of the Mind Michael Gelb and Raymond Keene Aurum Press, 1997, 224pp., £15.95 Frankly I wish I’d never agreed to review this book. Criticism of it will inevitably seem like gratuitous Mondo knocking, and praise will be seriously…

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Carl Haffner’s Love of the Draw by Thomas Glavinic Harvill, 1999 First published in German as Carl Haffners Liebe zum Unentschieden, this English translation was even mini-launched at the Austrian Institute in London in the presence of (wait for it) GM Raymond Keene, a…

The Pawn was not impressed at all by Alexandra Kosteniuk’s decision to prostitute the royal game by her appearance in Penthouse. ChessBase helpfully provided a link to the Penthouse website, and as far as the Pawn could see there were plenty of perfectly nice-looking girls…

What is your earliest memory of playing chess? It was a few weeks ago. I was watching some other Burmese Grandmasters playing, and I said, what’s that horsey bit, and how does it move? They kindly showed me how all the bits moved, and next…

The Pawn likes nothing better than an undignified catfight, and the rumpus over the Krush–Zatonskih Armageddon game which decided the US women’s championship is one of the finest of recent years in that regard. For anyone who’s missed it, Zatonskih won on time in…

Geoff Chandler Jose Raul Capablanca. Look at the that? What a magnificent way to start an article about chess. Sometimes when the morning post has depressed me with various companies demanding money, I write ‘Jose Raul Capablanca’ on their bills and somehow they feel less…

There is this to be said for being a fan of Vladimir Kramnik – you do a get a better class of insult for your money. Reading Toilet War one is reminded, quite apart from the unmistakable whiff of madness arising from the pages,…

Lev Khariton The attractive countryside of Meudon is a 15-minute train ride from Paris. Here I came to interview Boris Spassky just three days before his 60th birthday. He reminiscences about his life, his chess career, his rivals and friends. Dear Grandmaster, I should…

You read some strange things on the internet. Chesscafe carried a review of Glenn Flear’s Practical Chess Endings which asked the curious rhetorical question, ‘Is this the best book on endgames ever written?’. I just paused there to let that sink in. Now Glenn’s a nice…

Lev Khariton The attractive countryside of Meudon is a 15-minute train ride from Paris. Here I came to interview Boris Spassky just three days before his 60th birthday. He reminiscences about his life, his chess career, his rivals and friends. Dear Grandmaster, I should…

Andy Lewis A common Arimaa starting position Anyone for a variation on chess? Is chess played out? This concern has been voiced periodically over the history of the game, and the challenges has never been more profound: over-refinement of opening-theory; perfection of endgame technique;…

Sarah Hurst was a regular contributor to CHESS magazine in the 1990s and also edited the British Chess Federation’s newsletter, ChessMoves. Her fine book Curse of Kirsan: Adventures in the Chess Underworld is now available on Kindle at a bargain price. Since 2002 she has been translating…

Why Life Does Not Imitate Chess Part 3: The Visionary Followers of Garry Kasparov on Facebook will have noted that he has taken to styling himself as a ‘politician’. What’s his track record? All chess players will know about his campaign for FIDE president…

This Armageddon-style knockout tournament will take place amid the splendour of the Vladimir Putin Memorial Tearoom, St Petersburg. Play will begin on Christmas Day and continue until one player is left standing. He will be declared the winner and carry off the Prince Salman Bone-saw…

Chess and Early Cold War Propaganda Chess, like many sports, has been used as a political instrument. Files recently released by the National Archives reveal how the Soviet Union exploited chess for propaganda during the early years of the Cold War (1953–1960). In December 1953,…